Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

15. “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but you received the spirit of
sonship, in which we cry out, Father, Father.” The “spirit of bondage” here mentioned does not
refer to the unconverted, but the regenerated state, peculiar to the period of spiritual infancy. This
passage is corroborated by Galatians 4:1-7 (which you do well to read in this connection), setting
forth spiritual servitude and sonship contrastively; the former appertaining to the entire period of
spiritual infancy, beginning at birth, i.e., regeneration, and running up to majority, i.e., sanctification,
where you enter spiritual manhood. Upon examination you readily see that these two periods are but
counterparts in the history of the same individual, the servile character predominating during
spiritual infancy, while you need “nurses” and “guardians,” and the filial having pre-eminence during
your majority, when you are competent to take care of yourself and consequently no longer under
the and guardians. A dead man is not subject to law in any sense. Regeneration raises you from the
dead and puts you under a legal regime of nurses and guardians in the visible church, till you reach
the majority of entire sanctification, old Adam, who is under the law, being crucified, thus gloriously
liberating you, so that you are “no longer under the law but under grace” (Chapter 6:14). We must
not discriminate too widely between “servant” and “son” in this exegesis, so as to conclude that they
are different individuals, for they are not, but one and the same; during the regenerated state, while
under the law, which can only be satisfied by the crucifixion of Adam the First, the servile character
predominating; while in the sanctified experience the filial relation comes to the front, throwing into
eclipse the former period of spiritual infancy amid the cloudless glories of full salvation. Your son
is as truly your heir from his infancy as he will ever be, though under the law of domestic
government and frequently flogged for misdemeanor till he reaches adult age. Though after this
epoch you treat him as a servant no more, but simply as a son, yet he is more obedient and actually
serves you better than when, a naughty lad, you found the rod a valuable auxiliary. The old theology
is here at random recognizing the dead church members as servants of God, though they had never
been born of the Spirit. You see that is untrue, because the servant in this case is your child, who
serves you like a slave during minority. Hence you see that all the servants of God are not simply His
servants, but His children, denominated “servants” during a spiritual minority, but “sons” after they
have reached majority. Hence it is flagrantly murderous to true diction to call these common sinning
church members who have been born from above the “servants of God,” even though they be ever
so loyal to the church and obedient to the preacher. That is a Romish heresy, now fearfully rapidly
creeping into all the Protestant churches. God does not yoke up the devil’s cattle to pull the salvation
wagon. He works none but His own oxen.
16. “The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” I hope
you will never apply the neuter pronoun to the Holy Ghost, as it almost amounts to blasphemy to
speak of the Author of all life in the use of the neuter pronoun as if He had no life at all. The clear
and unequivocal witness of the Spirit here mentioned does not apply to the servile period of spiritual
infancy, i.e., the regenerated state, but to the filial period of sanctification in which the sonship
supersedes and predominates over the servitude in which you were born under the law of the
domestic government. Do we not receive the witness of the Holy Spirit to our regeneration?
Certainly we do. But it is not the clear, constant, abiding and overwhelming witness mentioned here
and in Galatians 4:6, shouting incessantly, “Father! Father!” Abba being simply the Hebrew word
for father, which is left untranslated in E.V. As Wesley well says, in regeneration we have the
witness at times, anon obscured by intervening clouds, and, in time of temptation, frequently entirely
absent. Then we sing, —